Zokesian Blockade
The invasion of Puge Tatar in 2089 was the result of the shift in favor away from Zokesian policy. The occupation force was swift in resuming control. The veteran "Stahl Sieg" battalions from Obtund and Schrschnell launched into the naton and repulsed Tekkian units airdropping into the nation. Over the next month, the Stahl Sieg proceeded to search the city of Puge block by block, dragging out anti-Zokesians and nailing them to crosses that lined the road from Puge-Tatar to Zokesia. In a surprise act of aggression, the nations of Coalition Supranational Democracy (CSD) declared war on the Republic of Zokesia in early 2090. The war was an unbased act of aggression and Grail was quick to rally the people of the nation, who were already distrusting of the democracies of the world, behind the cause of home defense. "Today is the day Zokesia fights back against the scheming underlings of the world. They fear our might, and have threatened us with destruction. We will never let such unclean and uncivilized nations run the world. We will weather every attack and drive them back to their caves where they belong. They have made war with a tenacious foe." The CSD's first move was to attack and occupy Minmus. I response, the self-defense barrier "Gotterdamerung" was activated, and over the course of 10 weeks all 19 of Gotterdamerung's E-class asteroids at Moho and the nations of CSD on Kerbin. The holocaust following the bombardment registered in the tens of millions, but the nations of CSD pressed on, and formed a battle fleet to invade the homeland of Zokesia from the sea. In response to the asteroids, Grestin launched over three hundred orbital warheads at the small Solari island of Korfu, flattening it to destroy the fleet anchored there after having been interned legally by the neutral power of Solaria. "The nations of CSD claim to be democracy. Then the burden of agression and war falls on each and every citizen in their nations, for they have acted in merciless fury and pain on a nation which valued Kerbal life above all. - Francisco Grail, Memorial to the victims of the December Massacre of Korfu The last four months of 2090 saw Zokesia plunged into a war on all fronts. Facing the world alone, Zokesians banded together in a fervor and determined spirit to resist. Just as they suspected and feared for a year previously, following the dissolusion of the Federation, the nations of the so-called "free" world pretended they knew what was best for the people of Zokesia - a people now firmly entrenched and fighting for their very survival. The totalcy of war was clear - there was no surrender, for defeat meant certain death for every man, woman, and child of the proud nation. The nations of the world believed that there were nearly no Zokesians left - merely overstated casualties from the Arcadian uprising were the cause of this. The Zokesian population at the start of 2090 was just over 10 million, mostly now ethnicly Sur-Zokesian or Bosmynthian, and the prevention of the rebellion in New Arcovy saved their way of life, depsite the high costs. Thankfully, New Arcovy was much sparser populated than the census had been recording, possibly due to Arcovian families double-registering due to tax reasons. The war, which began in late summer, has progressed through the bitter winter, and as the days get bleaker so do the forecasts from Zokesian High Command. Following the near-collapse of the industry of the nation following the blockade, which was remedied only by the emergency airlifts which began in the 11th hour of November, kept the Zokesian people from freezing to death in the winter. The attempts to break out of the blockade by groups of Arkadii-Zokesian ships was met by fierce resistance by CSD ships, which sank two Cruisers and two Destroyers. the Zokesian corvette flotillas were unable to move out and escort the larger ships due to mechanical failure in the cold weather, and thus the breakout was unsuccessful. A brave and valiant 100 sorties by Swordfish pilots of both the Air Force and Navy were in vain, as they were only able to damage one Vocavium ship in their attacks. Suffering horrendous losses. The Wakir fleet managed to shoot down multiple waves of oncoming attack aircraft on their way back to the safety of Ezekielgrad, where they prepared to refit and hope the enemy ships could be countered by land-based sites. The Phosphor fleet, which had been surveying Bitterwater lake untill the war, quickly steamed through the Nautilus Gap to parley with the Grestin leadership, issuing an ultimatum: "Come to the peace table or we will wipe Moho out." Moho the planet was of great military value to Grestin, responsible for fielding the fleet which destroyed Minmus, and was fair game in the grand scheme of targets, it was reasoned by Zokesian High Command. The enemy Zokesia faced was known for indiscriminately bombing civilian populations, and though Gotterdamerung had hit 8 capitol cities, the strategic military-industrial targets inside were more than enough of a cause to perform such an attack, and as agressors the nations of CSD should have expected nothing less than such an expensive and deadly self-defense waepon as Gotterdamerung from Zokesia. Upon receiving the insulting message "We do not negotiate with terrorists" from Grestin High Command, Phosphor fleet sailed back to the safety of Korfu, out of fuel and without hope of breaking the blockade, to intern for the remainder of the war. In Zokesian High Command, the order was given to raze Moho. In retaliation, Grestin unleahed an overkill of an orbital bombardment, and over 300 individual ballistic elements struck the small island, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent lives. Grail personally laid a wreath at Ward National Cemetary, " ...in honor of those who died, who like us Zokesians, did not ask to be targets of war, yet were killed without mercy all the same." Meanwhile, in Zokesia the crew of Phosphor Fleet were hailed as martyrs for the cause, brave souls who extended the olive branch to preserve Kerbal life, and were cowardly murdered from an enemy miles above the planet. The cries of "Remember the Fleet!" and "Zokesians Never Die!" Were rallying cries for the people of the nation. In the darkest days of winter hope was still flickering in the heart of every Zokesian, a burning desire to defy the CSD and preserve their way of life, their values, and their homeland. In a speech in March of 2091, Grail appealed to the anticommunists, reactionaries, and traditionalists of the world, to join Zokesia in support against the common threat of a "thinly veiled attempt to overthrow tradition and order in Zokesia, and spread the soft communism of their so-called democracies." Volunteers formed up in Stahl Sieg Divisions, even from as far as Baskay and Doren Island, to help defend the Federation. The Konig-SS divisions' quick reaction sparked more across Doren and Kolus, and small but determined bands of volunteers began steadily joining the Zokesian cause. 14 Stahlsieg battalions had been formed of various strength and size by May, in different locations, ready to defend against a naval invasion. By April, Gotterdamerung had resupplied four more asteroids and launcehd at the nations of Vocavium and Tekkia. Tekkia's fleet intercepted and re-oriented the asteroids to land west of the nation, narrowly missing Zokesia herself. Shortly after this, Grail gave a direct order to halt further missile launches. "Great Columns of water shot into the sky as fragments from the space rock plunged into the ocean. From their homes on Zentral, the Kourke family could see the massive asteroids, with mangled wrecks of spaceships still attached, fall into the sea. The waves created were dozens of feet high, and smashed into the small island, but the massive vertical height spared the people on it. Less safe was the old Wo'vian island on the ring of the crater, the massive thin strip of land taking multiple waves from both inside and outside the crater. The population had little time to react, and thousands died instantly when the waves engulfed the island. In the south, Valenia was swamped with monsoon level waves, but after the destruction of Nautilus much of the coast was allready unoccupied and did little damage. The last asteroid landed after glancing off the Cythian mountains southeast of Zentral, causing a massive landslide into the Crater bay, where thousands of tons of rock, houses, roads, trees and plants came crashing into the ocean." In the north, a hastily-put together force of missile batteries was defending against the Coalition's fleet, firing wave after wave of missiles keeping the ships at bay. 2nd SS. Schrschnellan Division "Weiss" engaged both bomber and naval targets around the bay, shooting down 3 aircraft at a cost of a few Lazer turrets from naval gunfire. The shelling was intense but these were veteran Föder Group soldiers, who had fought in Belasriov and Dorislav, and kept their batteries firing in the face of a determined enemy. The Zokesian Air Force picked up where the Navy left off, defending Zokesia's airspace from foreign intrusion while the navy licked its wounds in port. Tigersharks re-mobilized from the mothballed facilities led sorties over Ezekielgrad, supported by the 11th SS. "Gunnar" König Battalion's F-61C Condors. The war slowly but surely dragged on, culminating in massive economic collapse in Zokesia. The supplies for waging war were straining the economy, and as the blockade reached its second year vital resources were running out. The people of Zokesia, strapped for every ration-able product, began showing discontent with massive strikes in the north of the nation, and a famine threatened mass starvation in the south. On July 20th, 2091, A large explosion rocked the underwater facility housing the top-secret command structure of Zokesia. It was suspected that Grestinian submarines orbitally dropped from space were the perpetrators of the attack, and wreckage recovered appears to support this, though a small few claimed it was an "inside job". To the nation which had been under his leadership for the past decade, the shocking event had a profound impact on the people who looked up to Grail as the figurehead of the nation, the great President whose charisma swayed millions. The people of Zokesia mourn the loss of Grail and the thousands who worked in the facility. General Gordon Simon Kerman assumed command as President-Chancellor of the Zokesian Federation. General Gordon Kerman, his first act officially opening the lines of diplomacy to the CPD, which ended the Second Great War. Category:Conflicts